Title

Author

Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English

Advisor/Committee Chair

Edward Schwarzschild

Committee Member

Ineke Murakami

Committee Member

Tamika L. Carey

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln coined the phrase, "A house divided cannot stand." So how he would feel about the current administration's stances against individuals in minority groups, whose identities are already heavily politicized? This collection of short stories I’ve written delves into the lives of those individuals as they have been targeted and continue to be affected by the rhetoric and policy threats of this administration. Each story follows an individual who deals with the effects of this rhetoric, both directly and indirectly. The experiences of the individuals in these stories are not universal; these experiences illustrate the potential circumstances and consequences these individuals face in real life, on a daily basis. Additional characters within each story represent different attitudes and reactions to the rhetoric on groups like immigrants, Muslims, women, etc. Some challenge those ideas. Others internalize them. The project as a whole exhibits how dangerous unchecked language can be. Unlike other works that analyze the current administration's members, rhetoric, and policies, this collection takes the approach of fiction, in the form of short stories. The use of fiction evokes emotion in the readers that numbers and statistics cannot. Additionally, each short story contains elements of both realistic and speculative fiction, suggesting that while the events in the story may not have necessarily taken place, they are very much within the realm of possibility. Some of these stories include specific acts of violence, which may or may not have happened, but have been inspired by other acts that have been documented. My hope is that this project inspires allies by opening a lot of eyes to the insensitivity and bigotry being displayed and normalized.